Congrats...2 years + 1 vanagon + lots of hard work = MFA

Bruce graduated this past weekend from the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Exhibition and defense completed, he now just has to hand in the bound thesis.

Two years of being mostly apart is almost over. He worked very hard, produced a lot of great (and different) work and now has an MFA and a fulltime job to show for it. I am very proud of him for finding his calling and following his dream.

For those curious, you can read about Bruce's road to grad school here on Henry Horenstein's Teaching Photo. Henry wrote and featured several articles on the MFA graduate experience this past spring on teachingphoto.com - you can read ruminations here, grad school alternatives here, and another student's experience of a low-residency MFA program here.

To those who are not fresh out of undergrad and are considering going to grad school for an MFA, or to those newly-minted BFAs who are considering whether to wait or jump right in, let these stories inspire you and let you know you are not alone.

Next up for the Bruce?

Move part of his thesis show to NYC to Soho20 in Chelsea opening later this month, send off work that was just selected for Houston Center of Photography's 27th annual juried exhibition by Katherine Ware and get ready for a show at NEIA. Oh, and teach four classes (theory among them) this summer. No rest for the weary!

ABOVE: After being hooded, Bruce gets ready to receive his degree! Photo by Gordon Brown.

The Future of Photography at the PRC

Over at the PRC, it's one of our favorite times of the year when even more creativity and boundless verve adorn our walls...that's right, it's the PRC Student Exhibition! 18 of our institutional member schools brought us their 5 best pieces (yes, that is 90 works). Because each program juries as they see fit, we don't see the pieces until they show up on our doorsteps! Our favorite art installer Vinnie and I had a blast playing with the works this past Saturday.

You can check out some of the student work at this audiovisual feature on BU Today. We gathered over a dozen images and students together and the nice folks there did their magic. Click here for the slideshow and here to listen to the students speak quite eloquently about their work. For local folks, there is also a smashing, full-page spread in the Weekly Dig.

Pictured above is the work of our poster child Alan Alan Arsenault, a junior at New England Istitute of Art. I was immediately smitten with this image and knew that it had to be on our postcard. People have been going ape over this picture and deservedly so, it's an amazing piece and series. If you look twice, you realize that this is not an Edgerton: the "bullet" is hanging on a string and there is cotton stuffed into the apple. We also took a lot of behind-the-scenes pictures, installation shots, and portraits of the students and posted them on the PRC flickr site.

Our Daily Red (the blog of Big Red and Shiny) gave us a shout out early on. Mr. Matt Nash points out that the PRC Student Show is "a great chance to see the work of upcoming artists -- and many of the artists we write about on Big RED got started at the PRC." Thanks Matt! (He also has a interesting essay on the future of photography in the current issue of BRS.)

Join us for the dry opening Thursday, February 7 from 5:30 - 7:30pm, where we'll have izzy drinks flowing freely and way more hummus than you can shake a stick at.

ABOVE IMAGE: Alan Arsenault, Exploding the Forbidden, from the series “Edgerton Follies,” 2006/2007, Inkjet print, Junior Photography major, New England Institute of Art